Toshi was the first to leave. At around 2:00 east coast time he took off to the train station, took the train and the AirTrain to the airport. I got a text message from him saying instead of a 6:30 departure it was going to be 9:15. Toshi only had an hour and a half layover in LA and I was worried he was going to miss his plane. We then found out that our Auckland flight had been moved from 11:30 to 1:30 so problem solved.
I left the house about 1:50 Seattle time after saying a quick hello to Jeffrey and Lindsay who had just gotten there from Portland. Mom dropped me off, reassured me that everything was going to be fine (this was before knew the Auckland flight had been changed) and I was off. I got all checked in for all three flights, went through security and sat waiting for my plane. The first two were fine – SEA SF, SF LAX. Then I got to LA. I got off the plane and had to figure out where my next one would be – thankfully I had a three-hour layover that had turned in to five because of the delayed plane. I was in terminal 7. I found an airport map only to find that the international terminal was far away. As I was trying to figure out how to get there a stewardess walked past and asked if I needed any help. I told her I was trying to get to the international terminal. She gave me directions and I was off walking because I didn’t want to catch the shuttle. The walk was outside and the weather was nice so I walked. I got there and found Qantas but that terminal was only for checking in to Brisbane and Melbourne. So I had to go back the way I came to terminal 4. Why Qantas international flights leave out of two terminals – one of them a non-international terminal – I have no idea.
So I got there and waited. Got something to eat, waited some more and waited some more. They talked about the flight how it was delayed coming from JFK – yet another reassurance that it was Toshi’s flight, so that I felt good about. Finally about 12:40 they started getting off the plane and for the last hour I had Toshi to wait with. We boarded the plane just after 1:30 and took off shortly after 2:00.
The flight from LA to Auckland is just over 12.5 hours. Luckily they feed you twice and the food isn’t bad. We had dinner, they turned out all the lights and we all went to sleep. I would say that I slept about 6 hours or so; not bad for being on a plane! When I got up I played some Tetris (I remembered that from my LA to Sydney flight many years ago), and read a bunch on my Kindle (Best. Purchase. Ever). They fed us breakfast, I played Tetris and read and finally they announced our descent into Auckland!
We had our customs forms filled out, waited in the short line, got through, grabbed our bags and then waited in the longer line with our bags. In filling out the customs form they ask about shoes and soil on your shoes. I had my hiking boots in my bag but Toshi told me not to worry about declaring them. I should have gone with my gut and declared them because when our bags went through the woman asked me about the shoes. I had to open my bag and have her look at them. She said, luckily those are clean, otherwise it’s at $400 fine for not declaring them. WOAH! Glad she was nice about it!
Next step was the rental car. We called, waited for the van, got in the van and then got the rental car. A very small hatchback but since its only the two of us, even with our good amount of luggage, everything fits nicely. Then we came to the hotel, got all checked in and found our room. I wanted to take a nap but we both knew better. By this time with the delay and everything else is was about 3:00 – honestly better than it would have been without the delay, about noon. So I took a nice long shower, put in new contacts and then we went out for groceries at the Asian grocery store nearby. Stuff there is ok but we won’t be going back. We had a snack and decided we would go down to the Viaduct (weird right?) and the waterfront and walk around a bit. It was good to get out of the house. After a good amount of walking around, stopping by the tower and seeing some people on the giant bungee things, we came back to figure out dinner. We read about an ethnic food court in Ponsonby (which for some reason I really want to call Ponsby) and went there. We had Indian and it was tasty and reasonable. We came back to the hotel to veg before going to sleep. The goal I had was 10:00. The people at the front desk had mentioned the midnight fireworks but honestly I knew there was no way I was going to make it. I pulled my kindle out and did some reading but by about 9:30 it was hopeless and we went to bed. I woke up a couple of times but not until early in the morning, I think about 4:30 and then again about 6 before I woke up a third and final time about 7:00. Not bad for the first morning!
After some reading and lying around we got up, had some of our Asian groceries for breakfast and tried to figure out our day. We had done a good amount of walking the day before and we were planning on going all over so we decided that we would drive. We started by going to the Domain, which has greenhouses. Since it was a bit gloomy outside it was nice to be inside at least in the morning. After the Domain we went to Mt. Eden. The view is fantastic but it was pretty foggy and that’s all there is there so we saw, I took a picture of the crater and we left. After Mt. Eden we drove around a bit – east in the city along the water to a view-point overlooking Achilles Bay.
Afterwards we went to the Botanic Gardens were we walked around a bit outside. I think we much be little late for them. While there were some really beautiful things, the rose garden especially was past it’s prime. It was nice to be outside and do some walking around and even though it was gloomy the temperature was pretty good. Because it’s New Year’s Day a lot of things are closed. Whole sections of streets with business are closed. We were worried we would have a hard time finding things that were open so we ate at the gardens. Some of the places that we saw are closed from (for example) December 23rd until January 8th for the holidays. Incredible that this is done by a lot of places and completely accepted. Very strange for us though! In the states people get mad if you are closed for any reason!
After having lunch we drove up north past the city. Toshi had found a place called Goat Island so that was our destination. It was beautiful driving up the coast and Toshi loved the windy roads. We walked around near Goat Island and up a rather muddy trail that took us to a lookout point. We learned the story about Goat Island. There are not any goats there but the reason is got the name was from sailors. They would find an island and label it Goat Island when the left goats behind to become food for anyone who might get trapped there. Most recently there were pigs but they ended up swimming to the mainland.
We drove back down part of the way on the west side of the island and then headed back over to the freeway to head back down. Some of the roads we were on were incredibly windy and toshi had a great time! Thankfully he didn’t go to crazy on them.
We decided since we are in an apartment style hotel and have a kitchen that we should make dinner (since most of our other hotels won’t be like that). I went on the GPS and asked it for a grocery store. The first one I found didn’t exist but thankfully the second one did. It was pretty nice and we got some dinner and breakfast things for tomorrow.
Tomorrow we drive to Rotorua – about 2.5 hours. We’ll get some lunch there and then do our blackwater rafting. First adventure!!! I know its going to be a blast and I am hoping to not have a panic attack anywhere along the way.
Not sure when we will get internet again so that’s all for now!
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